Vincent Burnelli….a forgotten aviation master !?

Here is my try on the subject…lifting fuselage.

There is a small free flying model of it.

You have be to real careful now.

There is a flying wing, lifting body, blended wing…and a lifting fuselage…latter is the Burnelli /DeMonge concept from 1922.

That’s why I said “sort of”.
In short we have the choice of all wing or all fuselage…or something in the middle.
They all share the same desire…less drag.

Couple of American homebuilt designs of note which have met with some success – the Sorrell Hiperbipe employs an airfoil shaped fuselage and the Dyke Delta is a blended wing delta.

Along the same lines…sort of…
The Boeing blended wing concept.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body

It’s so radical it would likely have to have a full scale proof of concept before (rightfully) conservative airlines would order them.
Frankly, I’d like to see the USAF order some as advanced tankers to supplement the KC-46, that would certainly demonstrate the concept.

You have be to real careful now.

There is a flying wing, lifting body, blended wing…and a lifting fuselage…latter is the Burnelli /DeMonge concept from 1922.

“…could they be developed to something new and exciting ?”

Along the same lines…sort of…
The Boeing blended wing concept.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_wing_body

It’s so radical it would likely have to have a full scale proof of concept before (rightfully) conservative airlines would order them.
Frankly, I’d like to see the USAF order some as advanced tankers to supplement the KC-46, that would certainly demonstrate the concept.

Fairly similar Dave – it is just as ugly 😀

Yes..they are hidiously ugly…but could they be developed to something new and exciting ?

How similar is this to the Cunliffe-Owen Burnelli OA1 G-AFMB?
http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/co.html

Fairly similar Dave – it is just as ugly 😀

There are some interesting photos, documents and newsreel film of the OA-1 to be found at http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=6611.0.

How similar is this to the Cunliffe-Owen Burnelli OA1 G-AFMB?
http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/co.html

Awesome data ! Great photos.

Thank you.

Just think about putting Scaled Composites to revitalize the concept ?!

One of the Engines in the restoration shop…

Wing Panels in the Storage Hangar

Tail Group in Storage Hangar

Burnelli CBY-3

We did a NE USA Road Trip in may/june 2018 during which we covered somewhere between 2,500/3,000 miles doing a mix of (mostly) Aviation and Railroad related visits (with a lovely Lake Boat trip thrown in),we popped into the New England Air Museum at Windsor Locks,Connecticut mainly to see their beautiful Sikorski VS – 44A ‘Excambian’.
But they also have an amazing survivor :- A Burnelli CBY- 3 Loadmaster which is undergoing a very high quality restoration – this link shows some restoration details https://www.neam.org/restoration-cby3.php.
We spent a whole day looking around the main museum during which a kind Docent (Volunteer) took us on a detailed tour of the B29 (Jack’s Hack) and its systems,the restoration shop was not open that day and we were on a very tight schedule as we had a long drive to get within spitting distance of the Kinzua Bridge ‘Sky walk’ (approx 450 miles of country roads) the next morning.However Carl the Docent volunteered to come into work early the next day to show us round the restoration shop and storage hangar,we decided not to miss this opportunity 🙂 – these 2 buildings are tight for space so getting decent pics was quite tricky – but here are a few.

In the restoration shop….

Interior shot – looking forward to the Flight Deck